Oak Farm Vineyard in Lodi offers a taste of what's to come

Sunday

Jul 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM

LODI - Construction has begun on what Oak Farm Vineyard owners say will be Lodi's largest wine tasting facility, an expansive 12,000-square-foot building that is designed to invite people to "stay awhile."

Keith Reid

LODI - Construction has begun on what Oak Farm Vineyard owners say will be Lodi's largest wine tasting facility, an expansive 12,000-square-foot building that is designed to invite people to "stay awhile."

Oak Farm winery director Mike Shinn said the goal of the expansion, which he calls a "Wine and Hospitality Facility," is to make Oak Farm a destination north of Lodi city limits. On DeVries Road, the winery will help the nearby Peltier Road, which is also dotted with other wineries such as M2, St. Jorge, the Viaggio and others become a can't-miss corridor for the Valley's wine enthusiasts, Shinn said.

Once complete, the new building will be include a state-of-the-art wine production facility, a 2,500-square-foot tasting room with "floor-to-ceiling vineyard views and a 360-degree tasting bar," two courtyards with outdoor fireplaces, and an extra 1,000-square-foot room for wine club members. Added to that is plenty of gigantic spaces both indoors and out where visitors will want to spend significant time, Shinn said.

"Lodi's never seen anything like this," Shinn said. "We've grown as a region, but it's more of a go, taste, buy, and leave situation. This will be a place where people will want to spend time. We have a private lake on the property. It's a place to come out, relax, buy and stay."

Lodi's wine scene has seen steady growth in recent years, highlighted by the city's push to bring more tasting rooms downtown to complement restaurants and other shopping destinations.

Shinn called the downtown scene "great" but said the northwest Lodi locations such as his at Oak Farm could bring an experience closer to what wine enthusiasts find in Napa's wine country.

Other wineries are joining in. M2 is expanding. The Viaggio is largely considered to be a fine resort-style winery even though plans to expand services there was recently opposed by the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation.

Viaggio owners Larry and Teri Lawrence applied for a permit to sell produce grown on their land, to bake pies, and prepare soups and panini sandwiches to sell.

The bureau argued before the Board of Supervisors that the plans too closely resembled a restaurant, and the panel eventually concurred, denying the deli.

Oak Farm has seen no such opposition. The Farm Bureau has endorsed the project.

"We support wineries in the area. The problem is when some wineries have been operating as event centers. You start to see that they have all these events with only a small production of wine," said bureau President Jack Hamm.

Hamm said the Oak Farm expansion does not mean more events but fits into the county's ordinances governing how wineries should operate.

"As long as they do what they say they're going to do, there won't be any issues," Hamm said.

Shinn said business plans call for wine tasting and pairings. Some wineries have refrigerators stocked with deli meats and cheeses.

Other local organizations are also excited to see wineries such as Oak Farm become larger and more ambitious.

"We love to see wineries doing exciting and different things. It's always fantastic to provide consumers a broad diversity of options and Oak Farm is a nice complement to what we've got here," said Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission Executive Director Camron King.